the vision thing
Washington - Sep 10, 2003
press release by Nick Lampson
After today's House Science Committee hearing on returning the Space Shuttle to flight, U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson re-introduced his Space Exploration
Act.
"Admiral Harold Gehman's Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) report cites the 'lack of an agreed national vision for human space flight'
over the past three decades as an organizational cause of the accident. The report calls on the White House, Congress and NASA to honor the memory of
Columbia's crew by reflecting on the nation's future in space," Lampson said. "I couldn't agree more. Even before the Columbia accident, the
future direction of many of NASA's programs such as Space Station and Space Shuttle were "To Be Determined.' "

"America's human space flight program is adrift, with no clear vision or commitment to any goals after the completion of the International Space
Station. The intent of the Space Exploration Act of 2003, is to provide a vision and a concrete set of goals for the nation's human space flight
program after the International Space Station," said Lampson. "This legislation sets forth specific incremental goals that are challenging, exciting
and that build capabilities and infrastructure needed for an ultimate human mission to Mars."

The goals established by the Space Exploration Act of 2003 are sequenced in terms of increasing difficulty and complexity. Achieving the earlier goals
will provide the capabilities needed for humans to explore other parts of the inner solar system while supporting the nation's scientific
objectives.

The bill establishes an implementation framework that will allow the best, most innovative mission concepts to compete. It is an approach similar to
that of the highly successful and innovative Discovery program in NASA's space science enterprise. In addition, the implementation approach contains
tough requirements for periodic independent cost and program reviews to ensure that the exploration initiative is carried out in as cost-efficient and
effective a manner as possible.

"The real obstacle we face in overcoming the drift in the nation's human space flight program is not technological and it's not financial — it's
the lack of commitment to get started. We don't need another national commission to come up with goals for human space flight beyond low Earth
orbit," Lampson said. "What we need is a national commitment to carry out any one of the many worthy goals that have been articulated to date."

"The Space Exploration Act of 2003 will revitalize our space program, energize our industrial and academic sectors, create new opportunities for
international cooperation, and inspire our young people," said Lampson.

Space Exploration Act of 2003
Fact Sheet

Requires the NASA Administrator to set the following goals for the future activities of NASA's human spaceflight program:

Within 8 years of enactment, the development and flight demonstration of a reusable space vehicle capable of carrying humans from low earth orbit to
the L 1 and L 2 Earth-Sun libration points and back, to the Earth-Moon libration points and back, and to lunar orbit and back.

Within 10 years of enactment, the development and flight demonstration of a reusable space vehicle capable of carrying humans from low Earth orbit to
and from an Earth-orbit crossing asteroid and rendezvousing with it.

Within 15 years of enactment, the development and flight demonstration of a reusable space vehicle capable of carrying humans from lunar orbit to the
surface of the Moon and back, as well as the deployment of a human-tended habitation and research facility on the lunar surface.

Within 20 years of enactment, the development and flight demonstration of a reusable space vehicle capable of carrying humans to and from Martian
orbit, the deployment of a human tended habitation and research facility on the surface of a Martian moon, and the development and flight
demonstration of a reusable space vehicle capable of carrying humans from Martian orbit to the surface of Mars and back.
The bill establishes an Office of Exploration within NASA, headed by an Associate Administrator, which will be responsible for planning, budgeting,
and managing activities undertaken to accomplish the above goals.

The Administrator will be required to establish a process for conducting competitions for innovative, cost-effective mission concepts to accomplish
the above goals, which will be open to industry, academia, nongovernmental research organizations, NASA Centers, and other governmental
organizations.

International participation and cost sharing will be encouraged. The Administrator will be required to establish an independent panel to conduct a
merit-based competitive review of the proposals submitted and an independent external review of the cost estimate and funding profile of the
competitively selected proposals. These findings must be reported to Congress.

The implementation plans of the competitively selected proposals must be updated every year by the manager of the project and the Administrator must
have an independent external review panel review each of the updated implementation plans and report these findings to Congress.

The bill authorizes $50 million for FY 2004 and $200 million for FY 2005.

If there was a future in space,it would not be so difficult a thing to realise.
Just another excuse to waste money and pull all their buddies in to make a profit.
Problems down here on the ground should be addressed before we worry about spreading our disease elsewhere.

There is lots of money and resources to be had in space. We just have to develope a cost effective means of getting up there and back.
The problems on Earth are never going to go away. If we get rid of one, we create a new one. There lots of problems in Europe yet we still spread to
the "new world". We will get there...its just a matter of time and money. Hopefully this plan will play out. If so we could see the begginings of
Martian colonization within our own lifetimes.

Such a lame cover for what is really going on. The low amount of money and long lengths of time between anything in that agency makes it
very apparent how useless it is to the strength of secret technology that is still being held back.

I cant see why it would be a bad thing, either. That would bring about a LOT of good for humanity. If they revealed all that at once, the would be
panic in the streets (well probably only in America) and the world is not ready for a full disclosure.

There would be panic everywhere my good man. There was a show on the history channel that talked about a government resolution in wich it stated
something along the lines of how bad it might be if a society wich thought it was all alone suddenly became aware of another. It used examples of
ancient cultures wich collapsed once they became aware of other cultures they had previously never had contact with. Thinking about that...I would
have to say that I support any coverup to hide the existance of aliens with the long term goal of making people aware. Not saying I think such a
cover-up exists...the researchers for the show could find no financial evidence of a massive cover up. I suppose it is always possible though.

The Above Top Secret Web site is a wholly owned social content community of The Above Network, LLC.

This content community relies on user-generated content from our member contributors. The opinions of our members are not those of site ownership who maintains strict editorial agnosticism and simply provides a collaborative venue for free expression.